The Golden Bough A study of magic and religion

Page: 52

Other people besides the Arabs have used fire as a means of
stopping rain. Thus the Sulka of New Britain heat stones red hot in
the fire and then put them out in the rain, or they throw hot ashes
in the air. They think that the rain will soon cease to fall, for
it does not like to be burned by the hot stones or ashes. The
Telugus send a little girl out naked into the rain with a burning
piece of wood in her hand, which she has to show to the rain. That
is supposed to stop the downpour. At Port Stevens in New South
Wales the medicine-men used to drive away rain by throwing
fire-sticks into the air, while at the same time they puffed and
shouted. Any man of the Anula tribe in Northern Australia can stop
rain by simply warming a green stick in the fire, and then striking
it against the wind.

In time of severe drought the Dieri of Central Australia, loudly
lamenting the impoverished state of the country and their own
half-starved condition, call upon the spirits of their remote
predecessors, whom they call Mura-muras, to grant them power to
make a heavy rain-fall. For they believe that the clouds are bodies
in which rain is generated by their own ceremonies or those of
neighbouring tribes, through the influence of the Mura-muras. The
way in which they set about drawing rain from the clouds is this. A
hole is dug about twelve feet long and eight or ten broad, and over
this hole a conical hut of logs and branches is made. Two wizards,
supposed to have received a special inspiration from the
Mura-muras, are bled by an old and influential man with a sharp
flint; and the blood, drawn from their arms below the elbow, is
made to flow on the other men of the tribe, who sit huddled
together in the hut. At the same time the two bleeding men throw
handfuls of down about, some of which adheres to the blood-stained
bodies of their comrades, while the rest floats in the air. The
blood is thought to represent the rain, and the down the clouds.
During the ceremony two large stones are placed in the middle of
the hut; they stand for gathering clouds and presage rain. Then the
wizards who were bled carry away the two stones for about ten or
fifteen miles, and place them as high as they can in the tallest
tree. Meanwhile the other men gather gypsum, pound it fine, and
throw it into a water-hole. This the Mura-muras see, and at once
they cause clouds to appear in the sky. Lastly, the men, young and
old, surround the hut, and, stooping down, butt at it with their
heads, like so many rams. Thus they force their way through it and
reappear on the other side, repeating the process till the hut is
wrecked. In doing this they are forbidden to use their hands or
arms; but when the heavy logs alone remain, they are allowed to
pull them out with their hands. “The piercing of the hut with
their heads symbolises the piercing of the clouds; the fall of the
hut, the fall of the rain.” Obviously, too, the act of
placing high up in trees the two stones, which stand for clouds, is
a way of making the real clouds to mount up in the sky. The Dieri
also imagine that the foreskins taken from lads at circumcision
have a great power of producing rain. Hence the Great Council of
the tribe always keeps a small stock of foreskins ready for use.
They are carefully concealed, being wrapt up in feathers with the
fat of the wild dog and of the carpet snake. A woman may not see
such a parcel opened on any account. When the ceremony is over, the
foreskin is buried, its virtue being exhausted. After the rains
have fallen, some of the tribe always undergo a surgical operation,
which consists in cutting the skin of their chest and arms with a
sharp flint. The wound is then tapped with a flat stick to increase
the flow of blood, and red ochre is rubbed into it. Raised scars
are thus produced. The reason alleged by the natives for this
practice is that they are pleased with the rain, and that there is
a connexion between the rain and the scars. Apparently the
operation is not very painful, for the patient laughs and jokes
while it is going on. Indeed, little children have been seen to
crowd round the operator and patiently take their turn; then after
being operated on, they ran away, expanding their little chests and
singing for the rain to beat upon them. However, they were not so
well pleased next day, when they felt their wounds stiff and sore.
In Java, when rain is wanted, two men will sometimes thrash each
other with supple rods till the blood flows down their backs; the
streaming blood represents the rain, and no doubt is supposed to
make it fall on the ground. The people of Egghiou, a district of
Abyssinia, used to engage in sanguinary conflicts with each other,
village against village, for a week together every January for the
purpose of procuring rain. Some years ago the emperor Menelik
forbade the custom. However, the following year the rain was
deficient, and the popular outcry so great that the emperor yielded
to it, and allowed the murderous fights to be resumed, but for two
days a year only. The writer who mentions the custom regards the
blood shed on these occasions as a propitiatory sacrifice offered
to spirits who control the showers; but perhaps, as in the
Australian and Javanese ceremonies, it is an imitation of rain. The
prophets of Baal, who sought to procure rain by cutting themselves
with knives till the blood gushed out, may have acted on the same
principle.